Over 200 members and guests gathered on Monday for the Society’s Annual Dinner in the Nash Room at the Institute of Directors. It was wonderful to see so many familiar and new faces. Our guest this year was be François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France and the evening was presided over by Sir Dave Ramsden, President of the Society.

The SPE’s Chair, George Buckley, started the formal speeches by thanking Oxford Economics on behalf of the Society for generously sponsoring the dinner, and updated guests on the latest Society news and growth and thanked his fellow council members, and non-council members for the valuable support they offer. George also thanked KPMG for its kind sponsorship of the Rybczynski Prize, before handing over to Michal Stelmach at KPMG to announce the winner of the prize. The winning essay was The impact of sanctions on Russian trade: Impulse response function approach by Muthomi Gichaara and Shahzad Gitay. Sadly the authors were not able to attend the event to receive the Award in-person but they have expressed their delight in winning the coveted prize! The winning essay can be found in the SPE online reading room.

During the Governor’s highly anticipated speech, the Governor said the ECB’s interest rates have reached a plateau where they will likely remain for the next few quarters.

“There aren’t just peaks and descents: there are also plateaus, where you can experience the effects of altitude and appreciate the view. That’s what we’ll probably be doing for at least the next several meetings and the next few quarters,” he told guests. For a full copy of his speech, click here.
We hope those who attended enjoyed the event and our thanks goes once again to Oxford Economics for so generously sponsoring this event.